Who wrote this book?

Who Wrote This Book?

I would have preferred to not write this book. I would have much preferred picking up someone else’s thorough examination of the genus Sida, including all its traditional and Ayurvedic uses around the world. I waited two years for this book from another author/researcher but it never came. The world desperately needs this book, so I wrote it. It culminates about three years of off-and-on intensive work. Hopefully this will engender future books detailing other known powerful herbal antibiotics. Natural medicinals were our past, and now are our future and our salvation.

Actually, the peer-review researchers themselves wrote this book, because as much as possible I have used the words of the researchers themselves to explain their research, and how Sida benefits humankind. I mostly assembled and edited this book. Assembling a book of this magnitude solo was at moments terrifying, so it was of great comfort to me, knowing that everything in this book leads back to expert research or review. It helps that for the most part, this book is not me. In this first edition I expect mess-ups, for example some material may not have the right citation number (write me and I will correct it for the second edition), but everything in this book is from some peer-review research or expert testimony.

I have been a plant person most of my adult life. My wife and I started Bountiful Gardens Seeds in 1982, which was part of Ecology Action of the Midpeninsula, an organization that has been desperately trying to save the world’s soil for the last 45 years, while refining a farming method (Biointensive) that actually creates soil while being very productive. I retired as the third oldest working member of EA after our founder, John Jeavons, and my wife. For years I selected many of the seeds we carried in our catalog, which was not unlike being an Indiana Jones of the plant world. The feedback I have received from farmers all over the world has given me good experience with how plants grow and what plants do. It also helps to be married to a biologist who fills in any blanks.

I consider myself a personal herbalist. I do not have the intimate, extensive knowledge of hundreds of herbs that a professional herbalist needs to know, but rather I know very well the few plants that I need, seeking only my health, and the health of my family. Medicinal herbs have been at the core of my family’s health for at least 35 years. I know the plants I use very well, and when I discover a new one that is as good as Sida is, I am completely on board right away, and want to know everything about it. The next step is a thorough and intensive research into its known benefits. So for a year I intensely scoured the world for legitimate research on Sida, and in particular on Sida acuta, the species which I use. The results have exceeded my wildest expectations. Everything known about Sida is pretty much in this book.

I personally believe that the Sidas (the major ones at least) are arguably the most powerful antibiotics known on earth, and Sida acuta the most powerful single herbal antibiotic known. (The discovery of berberine in (only) Sida acuta puts it over the top in my opinion.) Yet the other Sida species, particularly Sida cordifolia, aspire to the crown. The synergies of combining the strengths of several Sida species are largely unknown.

Sidas generally have stronger effects with a stronger dose, and they have a high toxicity limit. Sidas have over 200 known active constituents interlaced in an intricate matrix of effectiveness that “the bugs” never figure out. There has been no evidence of antibiotic resistance to crude Sida extracts no matter how much was taken, or how long they were taken.

I believe from my 35 something years in plants (and especially medicinals) that our anti-pathogenic future is to compound sustainable medications from multiple medicinal herbs. As powerful as any single herbal antibiotic is: there is no single herbal solution that can stop this proliferation of killer pathogens that seventy years of pharmaceutical antibiotics overuse has caused. The next generation of medicinal compounders will have to produce our salvation going forward with herbs like Sida. Again, one herb, even Sida, will ultimately not be enough, but it will be our very best start. And best of all, you can probably grow Sida in your garden just like tomatoes.